East Texas Hispanic Leadership Council

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Vice President's Corner

Habitat Wants Hispanic Participation

- by Patrick Butler, Tyler Morning Telegraph
October 19, 2007

Community "involvement, ownership and participation" were on the minds of the leadership of the East Texas Hispanic Leadership Council on Thursday evening. A strategy meeting sponsored by the council in cooperation with Habitat for Humanity of Tyler/Smith County was held at the Centro Cristiano Restauracion de Tyler, at "The Castle" at 325 S. Broadway Ave.

"Our aim is to see greater involvement by the Hispanic community in serving all of Tyler, not simply the Hispanic community," said council President Hector Guevara. "We want to promote that involvement through Habitat For Humanity."

Guevara estimated approximately 15 percent of residents in the Tyler area and about 17 percent in Smith County are Hispanic.

"That's a sizeable number," he said, "about 17,000 in Tyler and perhaps, conservatively, 30,000 in the county. We want to mobilize that population to be of assistance to needy people of any race, color or religion."

Habitat for Humanity approached the Hispanic council - now in the process of submitting paperwork to become a nonprofit organization - to encourage greater Hispanic participation, said Tom San Miguel, 39, of the council.

"Habitat wanted to see more Hispanic volunteers, as we did," he said. "The idea we (the council) have is to raise funds, enlist participation and take ownership of the greater Tyler community. There are, sure, Hispanic people on the list to receive a home from Habitat as there are from other races. But this is about actually helping to fund and build the homes, getting them (the homes) to anyone who needs them, regardless of race."

Guevara, a North Dakota native, said there is a greater pool of resources from the Hispanic community than when he arrived in Tyler in 1969.

"There were only a handful of Hispanic people here then," he said. "My wife, Judy, came in 1962, and she said you could fit the entire Hispanic population into a small building on Broadway Avenue."

Tyler was a "welcoming community," he said.

"There was never a problem for those who wanted to assimilate here," he said. "No racial problems, nothing. It's just another reason why Hispanics should use this avenue of participation to help a community that's been good to them."

Volunteers are welcomed by the East Texas Hispanic Leadership Council. Call Irma Henson at 903-780-3100 for information, or visit the council Web site at www.ethlc.org. Visit the Habitat for Humanity Web site at www.smithcountyhabitat.org.